onisms to,
his early contemporaries. The natural jealousies that would arise
between the followers, dependants, or proteges of a liberal patron must
also be considered.

John Florio became connected, in the capacity of Italian tutor, with the
Earl of Southampton late in the year 1590, or early in 1591, shortly
after his coming to Court, and a little before Southampton first began
to show favour to Shakespeare. We have Florio's own statement for the
fact that he continued in Southampton's "pay and patronage" at least as
late as 1598, in which year he published his _Worlde of Wordes_. Whether
or not he continued in Southampton's service after this date is
uncertain, but we may safely impute to that nobleman's good offices the
favour shown to him by James I. and his Queen in 1604, and later.

From the first time that Shakespeare and Florio were thrown together,
through their mutual connection with Southampton, in or about 1591, down
to the year 1609, when the Sonnets were issued at the instigation of
Shakespeare's literary rivals, I find intermittent traces of antagonism
between them, and also of Florio's intimacy and sympathy with Chapman
and his friends. In later years, Chapman, Jonson, and Marston, however,
seem to have recognised in Florio an unstable ally, and tacitly to have
regarded him as a selfish and shifty opportunist. Florio appears to have
used his intimacy with Southampton, and his knowledge of that nobleman's
relations with Shakespeare and the "dark lady" in 1593 to 1594, to the
poet's disadvantage, by imparting intelligence of the affair to Chapman
and Roydon, the latter of whom exploited this knowledge in the
production of _Willobie his Avisa_.

In Chapman's dedication to Roydon of _The Shadow of Night_ in 1594, he
shows knowledge of the fact that Shakespeare was practically reader to
the Earl of Southampton, and that he passed his judgment upon literary
matter submitted to that nobleman. Referring to Shakespeare, Chapman
writes: "How then may a man stay his marvailing to see passion-driven
men, reading but to curtail a tedious hour, and altogether hidebound
with affection to great men's fancies, take upon them as killing
censures as if they were judgment's butchers, or as if the life of truth
lay tottering in their verdicts." This reference to Shakespeare as
"passion-driven" refers to the affair of the "dark lady," upon which
Chapman's friend, Roydon, was then at work in _Willobie his Avisa_.
Florio, i